Lucky Guess
by TurkeyTheOneAndOnly
Summary: Marinette wonders if she's making the right choice by forcing anonymity.
1. An introduction

Sometimes, she wondered who her _chaton_ could be underneath his mask. It was a fun distraction, to consider that perhaps he was across town getting gelato while she was procrastinating a book report she didn't want to do, as she was now.

She would never ask him, even though she knew that she would be bothered until she knew. That, coupled with the knowledge that she only needed to ask and she would know, kept an air of mystery around him that she loved to play with. She knew that she could speculate as much as she wanted, but the chances of knowing him were slim. Paris had a population of about 2.24 million people, after all.

She smiled to herself, enjoying the complete anonymity that came with being Ladybug.

Her distraction was short lived, however, when the floor of her building gave a lurch. She looked out her window, over the chunk of skyline she could see from her vantage point. There was a cloud of smoke emerging

Tikki sped to her side. "Marinette, that could be an akuma!"

Marinette nodded. "Let's go check it out."

She scrambled up the ladder to her trap door, and Tikki shot past into the sky.

Within moments, Ladybug was swinging away.

* * *

It didn't take Chat Noir long to join the fray. After his arrival, the akuma fight was a walk in the park.

The explosion had been the result of the super-strength akuma throwing a (thankfully empty) bus as hard as he could towards a gas station. Thankfully, the employees and patrons had fled at the sight of the akuma, and those who hadn't left by the time Ladybug had arrived took the hint and went on their way briskly.

Chat Noir held up a fist for their traditional post-battle fist bump, and Ladybug humored him.

"So, my lady, any plans for the rest of the day?" He asked, a confident smirk lighting his face. She wasn't sure where he was going, but she knew it would probably be in a direction that she wasn't prepared for it to go.

"I'm in the middle of a project that I can't skip out on. Why do you ask, _Chaton?_ " She replied, carefully. She narrowed her eyes at him to indicate her interest, but also her suspicion.

"Well, you see..." Chat stopped, as if rolling the rest of the sentence around in his head. He looked everywhere except her face as he seemed to grasp for any way to continue.

"Chat..." She began, but his brilliant green eyes snapped back up to meet hers, and he seemed to gain the resolve to continue.

"My lady. I would be delighted if we could grab a cup of-"

At that moment, her earrings beeped loudly. She watched an expression of defeat cross Chat's face. A pang of sadness hit her as she realized what Chat had been trying to do.

She sighed, and Chat plastered a smile on his face. It didn't cause his eyes to gleam the way they did when he was truly happy, which told her that his smile was false. "Chat..."

He gestured for her to go. "You're running out of time, my lady. Perhaps some other time."

She offered a halfhearted smile. As she began to turn away, Chat reached out and snatched her wrist. She looked at him, and he looked back at him. He looked to be on the verge of saying something, but seemed to change his mind. He let go, and after a moment's hesitation, she threw her yo-yo, and left.


	2. Agreste Makes a Mistake

Hello! This is my first ever multi-chapter fic.

Here's how I plan to go. It will begin with a few drabbles and then progress into a plot.

Thanks!

* * *

Akuma attacks had been happening more frequently as of late. Coincidentally, so had Chloe rampages.

The class, overall, was tired and cranky. The one who seemed to be the most affected was Marinette, though no one could quite tell why. She took to napping between classes, as if it would help at all. She insisted that she ate and slept enough, which was true, so everyone collectively shrugged and left her to her sleep when they could, and tried to keep her on positive topics and away from Chloe in her waking hours.

Still, monday morning in particular seemed to arrive a week too soon for the pigtailed princess of the class. Alya patiently sat next to her friend and shooed everyone who tried to approach off.

The only person who could compare to the level of done that Marinette had achieved seemed to be Adrien, who was currently nursing a mystery-number-shot-something-or-other from the nearby coffee stand. Somehow, it didn't seem to be working for him.

Marinette groaned as she rejoined the conscious world. Alya idly rubbed at her back while chatting about the latest Ladyblog post from the night before with Nino. Adrien couldn't help but notice Marinette stirring. In his experience, waking up without something to focus on just meant that you were going to roll over and sleep more, so he twisted in his chair, carefully setting his bucket sized paper cup of sweet coffee on the table in front of Marinette so as to avoid spilling it.

"Good morning, Marinette."

"Hmmm? Good morning." She mumbled, lifting her head ever-so-slightly to indicate that she was paying attention. Adrien smiled. Sometimes his classmate did things that would make even the most experienced cute connoisseur's heart flutter, just a little.

"Did you have a good nap?" He asked, and she nodded, still in her daze. He had caught on to the fact that she wouldn't stutter or fly ten feet into the sky if she didn't consciously register that she was speaking to him, so he had begun initiating conversations with her as she was waking up to see if the dazed conversations they shared would help her warm up to him while she was completely awake. So far, there had been little success, but it was worth trying anyway.

Her eyes slipped all the way closed again, and he realized that he was losing her. He gingerly reached out and grabbed her wrist. Alya and Nino froze and watched his hand as if he had stuck it inside a bomb to cut wires. Adrien didn't bother to care. Instead, he carefully led her hand to the hot cup of coffee in front of her, ignoring the quiet whisper of ' _Oh no_ ' that came from Marinette's left.

Somehow, he reasoned, it felt right to give up his coffee for the good cause of making sure the local paladin was awake and ready for duty.

He curled her fingers around it and let go of her. His stomach fluttered again. He wasn't used to initiating any contact beyond reassuring shoulder touches. Alya and Nino slowly resumed their conversation, and Marinette let out another gentle groan.

"Marinette, I think you need this more than I do." He said softly, and watched as she pulled the cup towards herself. She lifted her head, and forced open her eyes, only for them to shoot open and for her back to go instantly rigid as she identified the speaker. "What? I just, you know. I mean..."

Adrien smiled, and her face turned an interesting crimson. She flustered, but managed to keep one hand on the cup while the other wildly gesticulated. She was speaking rapidly, and incoherently. He still couldn't pinpoint why, even though the whole class seemed to give him an exasperated expression whenever she acted this way.

"I ordered a vanilla latte. I hope that's okay." He said, and watched her hold onto the cup suddenly, as if it were an anchor and she was a balloon. She stared at him, unblinking, as she quickly swept the coffee towards her mouth so fast that he could hear it slosh inside the cup.

That was the day he decided that Marinette must be magical.

In a stunning display of skill, Marinette drank the entire remainder of the 20oz drink in less than five minutes, and then hide behind the textbook necessary for their next class while repeatedly stammering out thanks and gratitude.

For the rest of the day, he could feel the energy radiating off her as she seemed to vibrate in place. Sometimes, he would hear her speaking rapidly at a classmate from down the hall, where she had also taken to flying at high speeds. Even Chloe was too stunned about this new side of Marinette to try anything about it, preferring to keep out of the way so as to keep herself from being run over.

As they were leaving the school that afternoon, Nino politely informed him (through his laughter induced tears,) that Alya had mentioned Marinette's extremely low tolerance for caffeine, and that he had essentially put her into a day long manic high.

Adrien watched as Marinette blasted through the school doors, loudly chattering about a new design she had created to Alya, who was already ten steps behind. In that moment of watching her high voltage smile, Adrien decided that maybe Marinette should be given coffee more often.

In that exact same moment, as she watched her friend, Alya decided that the Agreste boy wouldn't live to see another day if he ever tried pulling this stunt again.


	3. Kids are suckers for candy

I wish I had a good candy pun to put here

Here is the last chunk of a youtube link /tTH7BBe2D78

If you like it, please leave feedback

* * *

The next Akuma attack didn't happen until Saturday evening.

Marinette was only a bit frustrated, but only because she had been en route to meet up with Alya and Nino for a film when she heard the screaming.

She ducked into an alleyway, and before she could transform, a black shadow passed overhead. A boy in a PVC catsuit sailed overhead from one roof to the next. Marinette held her breath, and hoped that he didn't notice her. Fortunately, he was too distracted by the ongoing akuma attack.

Marinette released her breath and unclasped her clamshell purse. "Tikki, we need to transform!"

Tikki swirled up to catch eye contact with Marinette before nodding. Marinette brushed her earrings in her signature style, and initiated the transformation.

* * *

Elsewhere, near downtown to be precise, Chat Noir found himself in a sticky situation. Evidently, there was a kid who had been pushed a little too far when his older sibling stole a bite of his candy bar, and now the town was facing the repercussions. What really made this fight awful was that the kids were both too young to appreciate his rapier wit when it came to finding puns, so he didn't even have that going for him.

That is how Chat Noir found himself carrying a twelve year old boy and dodging the concentrated blasts of liquified seafoam candy. The Akuma was screaming about wanting to make his brother pay, and the brother was also screaming. Adrien had never felt more like a babysitter. Not even when he spent time with Chloe.

He ran up and bounced off a wall, missing the blast of candy that solidified in a large clump on the wall, but catching his toe at the last second on the top of a lamp post after pushing off.

In what felt like slow motion, Chat felt the kid's momentum carrying him through the air and out of Chat's arms.

He felt himself teetering over the lamp and coming face to face with the cement. His stomach clenched in panic. He knew that he could land on his feet, but he couldn't see the kid anymore.

He rolled over in the air, and watched a red blur shoot towards where he had seen the kid. After following the trajectory with his eyes, he watched the yo-yo deftly snatch the kid out of the way of the next candy blast.

"Ladybu-ooof!" He hit the ground on his side, having forgotten to complete the rotation that would have landed him on his feet. Both Ladybug and the kid looked at him incredulously. It took a second to recover. That second was permeated by the screams of the outraged akuma victim, giving them plenty of dead time to catch up to what had happened.

Chat offered an apologetic smirk. Ladybug shook her head a little, before pointing at the akuma. "I think it's his candy bar."

Then, she was next to him, hauling him to his feet with her free hand. He smiled up at her. "How very _sweet_ of you to come, my lady."

Ladybug (predictably) groaned She wasn't quite fast enough.

The glob of sea foam congealed around his right hand, pinning him against the wall and putting his miraculous safely out of risk. Ladybug positioned herself in front of him, and dropped the kid, who took off down the street to hide behind a nearby car. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Alya yank the kid behind the car, and replace her cell phone in a good position for recording. He assumed that Nino was with her.

That was when Adrien realized that his ring was pinned against the wall. Ladybug seemed to be running defense until he could get out, but it seemed like the candy shell was too thick for him to break out of on his own.

He used the only solution he could think of.

"Cataclysm!"

The candy shell immediately darkened and decayed until his hand was free. Ladybug seemed to notice that he was out. "Chat!"

He looked up at her. "Huh?"

She gestured away from the battle. "Go charge and come back. I'll hold him off until you get back."

Chat hesitated, but Ladybug had already gone off. Alya and the boy stared at him over the trunk of the car in the distance. His ring began to beep.

Taking a final look at his lady handling the situation, Chat ran in the opposite direction. Eventually, he found a secluded alley to detransform in.

Plagg drifted into his hands, and began to petulantly wriggle in an attempt to garner pity. "Adrien, I'm going to die if I don't get any camembert."

Adrien rolled his eyes and fished in his bag. _Sometimes,_ he thought, _I wonder if Plagg has single handedly kept the cheese trade alive._

* * *

Ladybug felt like the candied brat was wasting her time. She had cast Lucky Charm, and the item she had gotten was a baseball.

At that moment, she was on a rooftop out of sight of Captain Candy (as he called himself.)

She narrowed her eyes and considered. Her eyes flickered towards the candy bar, which the boy was clutching _If I throw this ball as hard as I can at his hand, maybe it will crack the candy bar._

She nodded, settled into a pitcher's stance, and chucked the ball at his hand.

The bad news was that she missed his hand, instead hitting the back of the poor kid's head. Ladybug flinched sympathetically.

The good news was that it had the intended result of causing the candy bar to snap when he dropped it.

She cleansed the akuma just as Chat arrived on scene with a boisterous shout of "Did you miss me, my lady?"

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Took you long enough, _Chaton_."

Chat wore a mock offended expression. He was perpetually in awe of how well Ladybug seemed to be able to handle herself. This time, he was also impressed that she had managed to wrap up a fight they had both been having troubles with in less than fifteen minutes. "You cut me to my very soul, my lady."

They locked eyes. Chat couldn't hold his pout, instead offering a genuine smile. Ladybug returned the smile, and the partners bumped fists. Ladybug's earrings began to beep, causing them both to flinch at the sudden noise.

She removed her yo-yo from her hip and began to spin it for momentum.

"Until next time!" She said, sending Chat a salute. She threw her yo-yo, and flew off into the distance.

Chat stared after her for longer than acceptable. He faintly heard the older brother apologizing to the younger for taking the candy bar, and Alya asking a frantic series of questions. When Ladybug turned a corner and left his field of view, he tuned back in to Alya's voice.

"Chat Noir, our readers at the Ladyblog have been dying to know if you and Ladybug know each other's civilian identities, or-"

Chat raised a hand to cut her off, blushing furiously as thoughts of knowing his lady under her suit danced through his mind (again.) "I don't really think it's a good idea for me to talk about Ladybug without her here. I don't want to say something that would make her upset."

Alya sputtered for a moment, and Chat took advantage of that moment to begin vaulting away on his staff. He had other things to do than stick around, like daydream about his lady and complete his french homework.

As he was leaving for home, he faintly heard Marinette's worried voice enter into a conversation with Alya.


End file.
